Effects of Aerodynamics Changes on A Car Caused by Another in Its Proximity: An Experimental Study

The study of road vehicle aerodynamics is quite different from that of an aircraft
aerodynamics which mainly focuses on producing lift. The subject does not lend
itself to traditional methods such as mathematical analysis where there are no
straightforward methods for predicting how air will flow around a given vehicle
shape and no equivalent of the simple formulae used in earlier days for determining
the lift and drag of an aircraft from its geometry. With regards to this Final Year
Project (FYP), Experiments is to be conducted to study the effect of aerodynamics
change on a car caused by another in its proximity. For this experimentation project,
the Kelisa car’s is to be considered as the model which enable in achieving
dimensional similarity and more accurate in getting the experimental result. In the
experiments, certain ranges of distance between the two cars were to be highlighted
in order to show the drag force and other aerodynamic changes that might occur. The
aerodynamic changes are to be studied on two model vehicles using a wind tunnel
equipped with the necessary measuring equipment. The study is focused on the
effects of the wake of a vehicle to another vehicle in tailing position (back-to-back),
where the experiment is done using wind tunnel and scaled vehicle models. The
model is to be manufactured by using CNC machining process.